CIMM meeting 27 · 2026-04-20 — Committee Evidence — LegisWatch

Summary

This House of Commons committee meeting on April 20, 2026, studied Canada’s immigration system, focusing on the 2026 Auditor General’s report on international student program reforms. Appearing were Karen Hogan (Auditor General), Ted Gallivan (Deputy Minister, IRCC), Tara Lang (Director General, IRCC), Erin O’Gorman (President, CBSA), and Alexis Graham (Assistant Deputy Minister, IRCC).

Karen Hogan stated that while IRCC reduced new study permits to under 150,000 in 2024—far below the 350,000 projection—it failed on integrity controls. She noted that of 153,000 potential non-compliance cases flagged by institutions in 2023-2024, only about 4,000 were investigated, and most were closed without resolution because students did not respond. She also found that 800 fraud cases identified after permit approval received no follow-up, and over half of those individuals later had other immigration applications approved. She recommended better collaboration with CBSA to track whether students with expired permits leave Canada, noting that only 40% of 39,500 required to leave in 2024 had done so.

Ted Gallivan acknowledged the lack of follow-through on fraud was unacceptable and committed to completing all management action plans in calendar 2026. He said IRCC is piloting proactive measures to manage visa expirations, including sending warnings about consequences like a five-year ban, and plans to have an IT indicator by May to show whether a person is still in Canada. He stressed that the department must categorize flagged cases—distinguishing errors from fraud—and apply appropriate responses, and that tough consequences are essential for deterrence. He disagreed with any suggestion that the department had been pressured to prioritize processing over integrity, framing the government’s direction as one of control.

Tara Lang explained that reforms have reduced asylum claims from former students and lowered the number of unmatched letter-of-acceptance verifications in 2025 compared to 2024. She said IRCC is working on a pilot to send letters before and after visa expiry, with alerts for misrepresentation that could trigger a five-year bar if individuals reapply. She noted that the 800 fraud cases involved student direct stream applicants, and that procedural fairness letters were issued during permanent residence applications, though she could not detail each case’s outcome.

Erin O’Gorman described CBSA’s role as part of a continuum, intervening when students are inadmissible or fail to comply after IRCC’s efforts. She said CBSA prioritizes serious inadmissibility and failed asylum claimants, and that IRCC’s planned integrity measures should reduce the number of cases requiring enforcement. She confirmed that CBSA’s immigration holding centre capacity has increased in the past year after losing access to provincial facilities, and that 42 new officers have graduated from a first cohort, with 100 expected by June, as part of a commitment to hire 1,000 officers.

Alexis Graham noted that IRCC increased the financial requirement for students from $10,000 to $20,000 and is working with provinces to refine allocations and share data. She highlighted the francophone minority student pilot launched in 2024, which allows graduates and their dependents to become eligible for permanent residence, as a tool to diversify the student population.

The committee briefly debated extending the meeting to two hours, which was agreed to, and no motions or procedural votes occurred.

AI-generated summary — may contain errors; verify against the official evidence.

Witnesses · 5

Karen Hogan

Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General

Opening remarks

Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to testify today before the committee to discuss our report on reforms to the international student program, which was tabled last March. I would like to acknowledge that this hearing is taking place on the traditional, unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin people. As part of this audit, we examined the implementation of reforms to the international student program by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. These reforms were intended to manage the program's growth and strengthen its integrity controls. Overall, we concluded that, while the department reduced the number of new study permits issued, it did not meet expectations in other key areas. In 2024, the department issued just under 150,000 new study permits. This figure was well below projections, which stood at nearly 350,000. Some provinces, particularly those with smaller populations, were disproportionately affected. For example, Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan were both projected to see a 10% increase in the number of new study permits approved compared to the previous year. However, both saw a decrease of at…

Full testimony ↗

Ted Gallivan

Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Opening remarks

Thank you, Madam Chair. In order to maximize time for questions, I'm not going to read my remarks. I'll just make a couple of quick points. First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to this committee for the report it provided last week. It contains very important insights that will assist us in this area. Second, the OAG recognized three areas where the planned reforms to the student visa program had the intended effect: the overall numbers were down; the student direct stream had been wound down; and verification letters from the educational institutions had been implemented. We'll probably not spend a lot of time on those positive findings. I will say that the negative findings, in particular the lack of follow-through on fraud, are unacceptable. We've submitted management action plans to this committee. Hopefully, you have that, or at least it's with the clerk of the committee. For me, it was important that all of those actions be completed in calendar 2026. It's important for us to address these quickly. Madam Chair, I have finished my remarks and am ready to answer questions from committee members.

Tara Lang

Director General, Admissibility, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Opening remarks

Thank you, Madam Chair. We're seeing fewer asylum claims made by former students. Fewer LOA verifications in 2025 produced no match results than in 2024, so that's suggesting the system is not only catching fraud but also deterring it. Requiring students to apply for a new study permit when they transfer schools allows us to gather up-to-date data and information, and that helps us with the student compliance pieces. I think the pilot that the deputy was speaking about is something that will be very concrete, and we're working actively with our colleagues in CBSA. Just to expand a little bit on what the deputy said, we're talking about letters, so the concept is to send a letter before and send a letter after, and then we would have an alert on file that would show misrepresentation. If the CBSA, again, were being constrained from an enforcement point for the removal stream, we could catch them if they ever applied for another application, and there would be more specific consequences, like the five-year bar. We're trying to be a lot more proactive—help us help you. We want to have the right people in Canada, but if they're not following the rules, then they should not be here.

Full testimony ↗

Citizenship and Immigration

Summary

Witnesses · 5

Bills mentioned